"The Road to Easter Goes through Jerusalem"
The Road to Easter (a holy week series) • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 57 viewsBig Idea of the Message: Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem set the stage for his crucifixion and resurrection by declaring him Savior of both Israel and the world. Application Point: We must see in Jesus the rightful King of life and the Savior of all humanity.
Notes
Transcript
Jesus Triumphal Entry Historical Background
The road from Jericho to Jerusalem was loaded with thousands of pilgrims once a year as a means to celebrate the Passover.
These pilgrims would face elevation changes of approximately 3,370 ft. over the course of 14.5 miles.
When Jesus made this final trek to Jerusalem he stopped at Bethany and then Bethphage, where he secured a colt, before descending down from the Mt. of Olives into Jerusalem for his triumphal entry.
Prior to this point in Jesus ministry he had instructed people to keep it a secret about his true identity. This appeared to be the moment that he encouraged them to reveal who he was. He would not show himself as king, not the conquering hero of the story that they expected, but a humble servant riding on a donkey.
According to Josephus, the population of Jerusalem during the Passover would swell many times its ordinary size, with incredible numbers like 2,700,200 and 3 million. The population would many times double, triple, and even quadruple during the feast.
Progression of events
Somewhere close to Bethphage and Bethany Jesus sent two of the disciples, telling them to go into the village where they would find a tied up colt or donkey, who no one has ever sat on. When the owner of the donkey asks why are you untying it they were to say, “The Lord has need of it.”
The events that are taking place were all by design, the colt was there just as Jesus had said, they responded the way he told them to respond, and the owners of the colt did not have a problem with them taking his donkey. Notice that the donkey had never born human weight on it’s back. Most animals of this kind require a breaking in period before placing the weight of a person on it’s back yet the donkey did not flinch at the weight.
The donkey who had never felt the burden of someone it’s back now carried the Messiah who was carrying the weight of the world and it’s sin’s on His shoulders.
57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.
NOTE: The authorities were already hostile towards Jesus and had given instruction that anyone who knew where Jesus was should inform them so that they could arrest him. But, far from hiding in fear, Jesus not publically appears in this procession towards Jerusalem that had most likely been building all the way down the journey on the Jericho road. Jesus had already let it be known that Jerusalem was the object of the eventual end of His journey.
INTRODUCTION
You will find out over the next few weeks leading up to Easter that what Jesus does especially leading up to his death is all very calculated. Clearly this was not chance operation taking place.
NOTE: Look briefly at the events leading up to the triumphal entry.
Zacheus Meets Jesus
Jesus had an encounter with a tax collector by the name of Zacheus. You will remember that Zacheus being a short man an disliked by the Jews could not find a place to see jesus coming by, therefore, he climbed a tree to get a look at Jesus. Jesus calls him down from the tree and announces that he will be going to Zacheus’s house today. Zacheus had a life transforming experience, therefore, Jesus proclaimed that Salvation had come to Zacheus’s house. Key moment where Jesus re-introduces his mission, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”
The Parable of the 10 Minas
Jesus now uses an opportunity to talk about the kingdom. Jesus know’s that his Journey here on earth is nearly over. They are now about 17 miles from Jerusalem Jesus final destination. This led some to think that the climax was at hand and that the kingdom of God would appear immediately. The climax indeed was at hand, but it would be a very different kind from what people were anticipating. This parable was to put things into the proper focus.
NOBLEMAN
Visual picture of a pilgrimage to Rome to be made king. Herod the Great had received his kingdom this way. So, the illusion to this could be made because of the magnificent Herod had built in Jericho. The kingdom here is allegorically motivated. Jesus was about to finish his course at Jerusalem with his death and that meant leaving this earth. But he would return in due course of time, having been given the kingdom. The reference to a far country that he cannot be expected to return from very soon.
v.14 NOTE: The king motif will return as Jesus enters Jerusalem, the people who were subject to the nobleman did not like him, so they took what steps they could to prevent him from obtaining his kingly authority. (we cannot take this as allegory because Jesus is the perfect king and nothing can interfere with his kingship. But we should not miss the point that people rebel against all he stands for.)
v. 15-19 The nobleman returns to his kingdom and then came home. He now calls his servants all together who had been trading and investing what he had intrusted to them to care for. The first and second servants gained 1,000 and 500% respectively. Neither of the servants take credit for the increase but humbly ascribes the increase that your money has made in reference to the nobleman. Both are commended, promoted, and given cities in proportion to their profits. The rewards are opportunities for wider service.
v. 20-21 Only one servant left to be dealt with and we are left to imagine what would happen to the other seven servants. But, in the end there are only two classes: those who made good use of the money and those who did not. The third man did nothing with what had been intrusted to him but tuck it away in a napkin. This did not even comply with the minimum requirement.
NOTE: Jesus refers to those who have rejected the nobleman as “THESE ENEMIES of MINE.”
They have set themselves in opposition to him; they must take the consequences for their lack of action.
The coming of King Jesus to the world puts every man to the test, compels every man to a decision. And that decision is no light matter. It is a matter of Life and death.
Big Idea: Are you moving towards the need or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?
Big Idea: Are you moving towards the need or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?
3 THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW IF WE ARE GOING TO MOVE TOWARDS THE NEED.
3 THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW IF WE ARE GOING TO MOVE TOWARDS THE NEED.
1. God only has one play in His playbook and it doesn’t change.
1. God only has one play in His playbook and it doesn’t change.
The insight is the fact that this Jesus really is “the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” He was the Messiah, the Son of David, the long-awaited ruler of Israel, the complete fulfillment of all of God’s promises.
But, the great mis-understanding was that he would enter Jerusalem and by his mighty works, take his throne and make Israel free from Roman occupation.
I. Preparation (vv. 28-35)
Jesus knew God’s plan for His life.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Following our playbook leads to self-destruction
Following our playbook leads to self-destruction
Jesus would take his throne but it would be one of suffering and death.
Peters Sermon Following the Resurrection
The first sermon Peter preached after the resurrection using the words, “This Jesus God raised up” so that he was “exalted at the right hand of God”. (Acts 2:32-33) The apostle continues by saying that he is now King: “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The insight gave great joy but the misunderstanding brought destruction.
38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
The crowds were proclaiming their Messiah by saying “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” But in the very next verse it says, “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
Following our playbook leads to self-adoration
Following our playbook leads to self-adoration
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Note: True worship leads us to worship regardless of what the rest of the world around is doing. We just don’t care! We worship an audience of one.
Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher, theologian, writer and psychologist.
Many people view worship like this:
The worship leaders are the performers of worship.
The congregation is the audience. (they sit back and enjoy the show)
God is the prompter of worship. (tells the worship leaders what to do)
Kierkegaard stated that in corporate worship it should look like this.
The people should be the performers of worship (actively participating in worship)
The worship leaders are the prompters of worship (they lead the congregation on a journey of worship)
God is the audience. (he receives all of the offering and pleasure of our worship)
We must fully understand that worship is not something done for us, but we are actively participating in the journey of worship. This is when we begin to worship in spirit and truth.
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
NOTE: At this point it would appear that the Pharisees were worried that the whole world had gone after Jesus.
SCENARIO FIXING TO PLAY OUT
So Jesus already knows what is about to take place. The Pharisees are going to gain the upper hand. The people would be fickle and follow after their leaders. And Jesus would be rejected and crucified. And within a generation the whole city would be obliterated.
43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Our playbook seeks our own glory, God’s playbook seeks the glory for Himself.
Our playbook seeks the external, God’s playbook see’s the eternal.
Our playbook seeks our own comfort, God’s playbook includes suffering.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Note: The builders rejected the stone, the chief corner stone and threw it away. Jesus saw the sin, rebellion, and blindness that was coming.
Notice that as Jesus drew near to the city he began to weep over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Jesus began to weep over the blindness and the impending misery.
2. Christ’s merciful sovereignty should lead us to tears of mercy.
2. Christ’s merciful sovereignty should lead us to tears of mercy.
We serve a God who created our humanity, weeps at the fall of our humanity, became our humanity, and is redeeming our humanity.
—Author Glenn Stanton
NOTE: We all recall the scene in John 11:35, when Mary comes running out to meet Jesus, her brother Lazarus has died. Presumably in part because Jesus didn’t make it there in time to help. And she’s weeping. She falls at his feet weeping. Now Jesus knows what he is about to do. He’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead, but he sees Mary’s tears. And he weeps with her. Jesus weeps with those who weep, with his children who weep. How powerful a picture is that.
So now this time in Luke 19:41 Jesus is weeping, but it’s not weeping with pwople who are hurting. It’s weeping over a city full of people who are rejecting him, and who in the day’s to come will crucify him, and Jesus is weeping over them. It is one thing to weep with Mary and Martha over the death of your good friend Lazarus, it’s another thing all together now to weep over the very people who are going to kill you, who are going to crucify you in the most cruel form of murder ever imagined by humanity. He is weeping because he longs for them to know His fathers love.
When is the last time you or I have wept over people who either one, do not know Jesus, weeping over those who were lost or two, to take it a step further weeping over those who are lost and maybe who are your enemies, maybe who oppose you, maybe who would want to hurt you? That’s the leve of weeping.
When have you wept over your city, wept over your family members, wept over people you do not even know who are dying and going to a real place called hell for all eternity separated from God for all eternity.
Note: Do we pray over people like the Macchi people in Pakistan, 2.6 million of them, zero followers of Jesus, not followers of Jesus, no one who knows His love, no one who knows His Grace towars them among the Macchi people.
NOTE: Christ a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’, did not allow the joy and the praise to lift his spirits for long. he began to weep over the city. As Jeremiah had wept over and after it’s destruction six hundred years before, so the Lord Jesus stood beside the same city as a weeping prophet.
Note: as Jesus comes to the top of the hill and see’s the holy city Jerusalem He begins to weep over it. Why?
He fully knows the price he must pay for our Salvation.
He fully knows the rejection of the gift that will continue throughout all generations.
He fully knows that soon the city of Jerusalem itself will be destroyed and the people scattered.
NOTE: We can imagine supreme sovereignty, and we can imagine tenderhearted mercy. But who do we look to bring together in perfect proportions merciful sovereignty and sovereign mercy. We look to Jesus alone.
And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:26-31).
There is nothing wrong with their tears, except that they are in the wrong place. Jesus doesn’t stop them from weeping, as if godly people don’t show emotion. He calls them to weep . . . for themselves and for their children.
‘Jesus had made a name for himself as the worker of miracles, and the disciples had remembered them all. He had healed the leprosy with a touch; he had made the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the lame to walk; he had commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed him; he had stilled the storms and walked on water and turned five loaves and two fish into a meal for thousands. So as he entered Jerusalem, they knew nothing could stop him. He could just speak a word and Pilate’s heart would stop; the Romans would be scattered. He was sovereign.
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Jesus was a king, the king of glory; not just any king, but the one sent and appointed by the Lord God. Listen to how Isaiah described him.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Here was the king of the universe who today rules over the nations and the galaxies and for whom America and Iraq are but a grain of sand and a vapor.
It is remarkable how the tears of Jesus are often used to try and discount his sovereignty. Some might say, “Look, he weeps over Jerusalem because his design for them his will for them is not coming to pass. He would delight in their salvation. But they are resistant. They are going to reject him. They are going to hand him over to be crucified.” And so His purpose for them has somehow failed.
He can make praise come from rocks, so, he can also do the same for rock-hard hearts in Jerusalem. All of this rejection, persecution, torture, and killing of Jesus is not the failure of Jesus’ plan, but it is the perfect fulfillment of it. Remember what Jesus said in Luke 18:31-33 a short time before.
31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
NOTE: The betrayal, the mockery, the shame, the torture, the murder - and so much more - was planned. In other words the resistance, the rejection, the unbelief and hostility were not a surprise to Jesus. They were, in fact, part of the plan.
“But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
The sovereign Christ weeps over hard hearted people
The sovereign Christ weeps over hard hearted people
The mercy of God is Sovereign
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
NOTE: Jesus sovereign power over the hard hearted is one of the more admirable and beautiful things about Christ.
The sovereign Christ feels deep sorrow over the worlds situation.
The sovereign Christ feels deep sorrow over the worlds situation.
NOTE: Jesus feels sorrow over the situation but this does not mean that God’s sovereign plan is somehow wrecked on the rocks of human autonomy. It means that Jesus really feels sorrow over a situation. This is not the last time on the way to the cross we will see this kind of sorrow exhibited.
PERSONAL NOTE: There is a deep inner peace that God is in control of all that he purposes to do and that it will come to pass. This does not mean that we do not cry or weep over our situations.
IS JESUS STILL WEEPING IN HEAVEN FOR US?
The suffering servant here on earth, acquainted with grief. Jesus was born to suffer and die. The fact that Jesus wept is one of the most profound statements of Christ’s humanity. But, the resurrected Christ who cried over Lazarus and cried on his way into Jerusalem does not continue to weep in heaven, and that is the good news we need. The idea that Jesus still weeps undermines the complete nature of his atoning work on the Cross. Jesus cannot cry in heaven without his anguish continuing for centuries and millennia. But, scripture tells us that Christ suffered once for our sins, and this suffering must not be limited to the cross. This suffering in it’s entirety atoned for the sins of the elect - not merely his suffering on the cross for three hours of darkness. Therefore, if Christ, continues to weep, he continues to suffer.
Secondly, to think of the Son of God crying in heaven confuses the state of exaltation with the state of humiliation. Christ suffering for the purpose of the satisfaction of the law for the purpose of our Salvation. Suffering is at the state of humiliation, as it say’s in Philippians 2,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
If Jesus has been resurrected, he has been raised incorruptible, with a glorified body that is not longer subject to pain and suffering which would include grief, and weeping.
NOTE: This is where you and I step in, we are still acquainted with grief and suffering, and should weep and mourn over the lost world and over our own sins.
CULTURAL NOTE: Oh Church I pray that God would give you tears, I pray that you would weep over what he weeps over, and mourn over what he mourns over. Pray that God would help give you a tender heart of mercy. When you die and stand before the judge, Jesus Christ, and he asks you, “How did you feel about the suffering around you?” what will you say? I promise you, you will not feel good about saying, “i saw through to how a lot of people brought their suffering upon themselves by sin or foolishness.” You know what I think the Lord will say to that? It think he will say, “I didn’t ask you what you saw through. I asked you what you felt?” Jesus felt enough compassion for Jerusalem to weep. If you haven’t shed any tears fro somebody’s losses but your own, it probably means you are pretty wrapped up in yourself.
So, let’s repent of our harness and ask God to give us a heart that is tenderly moved.
3. The way of the Cross is the way of self-Denial
3. The way of the Cross is the way of self-Denial
Jesus moves intentionally towards suffering and death. Jesus is entering Jerusalem to die. He said so, “we are going up the Jerusalem … and the Son of Man will be delivered up … and they will kill Him....
NOTE: This is the very meaning of self-denial. This is the way we follow Jesus to the Cross. We see a need - for Jesus it was seeing the sin of the world, and broken bodies, and the misery of hell - and we move with Jesus, whatever the cost, towards the need.
Self-Deniel is Necessary
Self-Deniel is Necessary
We deny ourselves the comforts and the securities and the ease of avoiding other peoples’ pain. We embrace it. Jesus’tears were not just the tender moving of his emotions. They were the tears of a man on his way towards the need.
Note: Are you moving towards the need or are you fickle like the crowd?
To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him."
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, pastor, and martyr
SELF-SURRENDER, self-su-ren´dẽr: The struggle between the natural human impulses of self-seeking, self-defence and the like, on the one hand, and the more altruistic impulse toward self-denial, self-surrender, on the other, is as old as the race. All religions imply some conception of surrender of self to deity, ranging in ethical quality from a heathen fanaticism which impels to complete physical exhaustion or rapture, superinduced by more or less mechanical means, to the high spiritual quality of self-sacrifice to the divinest aims and achievements. The Scriptures represent self-surrender as among the noblest of human virtues.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Self-Denial is a mirror to Holiness.
Self-Denial is a mirror to Holiness.
We are far too hospitable with our sin. When was the last time we looked our sin in the mirror and came away broken? When was the last time we felt the gravity of our sin as betrayal against a holy God? The book of James was written to encourage believers back to faithful living instead of sinful wandering. At the height of James letter, he cries for the believers to see their sin rightly and act accordingly.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
We mourn over our wicked sin by seeing it rightly before a holy God. True grief over sin comes from contemplating our Savior, not comparing our character to those around us. Weeping over sin causes the gospel to become more glorious.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Those who belong to Christ have therefore crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires as Paul talks about in Galatians 5:24.
NOTE: Fro the moment of our re-birth into Christ, self-denial becomes a daily exercise for the rest of this life on earth. We are now thrust into a battle against the dvine nature of the spirit of God that now lives in side of us and the carnal natural human nature. Paul highlights this struggle in Romans 7:15 when he says “For I do not understand my actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
CLOSING
Dietrich Bonhoeffer help us understand the meaning of self-denial:
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” A follower of Jesus must be prepared to die if death is where the path of discipleship leads: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”
Real Cross-Bearing
To deny self does not mean to deny things. It means to give yourself wholly to Christ and share in His shame and death. To take up a cross does not mean to carry burdens or have problems. I once met a lady who told me her asthma was the cross she had to bear! To take up the cross means to identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death.
Are you moving towards the need or are you fickle like the crowd?
Remember that Jesus is tenderely moved, second he is self-denying and moves toward the need, and third he intends to do something about it. Jesus was dying in our place that we might be forgiven and have eternal life with him. (that’s how he moved toward the need)
What will it be for you?
Are you moving towards the ministry of mercy or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?
Are you moving towards the ministry of mercy or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?
Are you moving towards the greater need of the world or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?
Are you moving towards the greater need of the world or are you stuck with the fickle crowd?